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I'm sorry but I am confused. Someone please enlighten me. Would not a "High" aspect mean that the height of the kite, relative to the wing span, is taller, and not shorter, as it has been explained? The middle number in a tire size is the Aspect Ratio and it is based on the the Percentage the height is of the width, which would explain that 70 series tire is generally taller than a 60 series and a 60 taller than a 50 and so forth, depending on the original width of the tire, of course. Higher aspect ratio would then mean that the closer the height of the kite is to the width, the higher the ratio would be. A Rogallo shaped kite would be considered a high aspect ratio kite, 24" tall and 24" wide the ratio would be 100% and a Fire Dart (shorter, much wider...) kite would be considered a low aspect ratio kite 30" t by 100" w ratio would be 30 percent. The Geo Sport kite in my profile pic would be considered a lower profile kite.As examples.... Right?? Am I missing something??

well lets use the Blue Moon Mamba & Mongoose that were asked about early. When the kite magazine publishers began using the term "High Aspect Ratio" and "Low Aspect Ratio" when reviewing kites they used the simple width / height = A (aspect ratio) so using our examples

The Mamba is 94" wide and 47" tall, so 97 / 47 = 2.00

The Mongoose is 94.5" wide and 42.5" tall, so 94.5 / 42.5 = 2.22

The Mongoose is a "Higher Aspect Ratio Kite" - the product of our equation is higher then the Mamba's - The Mamba just happens to be a classic Aspect Ratio Neutral kite at 2.00 so it's perfect to include here since originally that was the line we used as the break between high & low.

I don't pretend using this to define kites is relevant at all, it got started back when our delta wing stunt kites were first being developed and has unfortunately stuck as an attempt to describe the angle or sweep of the wings, but it doesn't even accurately define that. A more accurate definition would be to simply state the actual wing angle in degrees but that gets into actually measuring angles or doing too much math and is 92 degrees verses 91 degrees going to have any more meaning or relevance? Then of course you run into 'how do you define the angle of a kite having a curved leading edge?'

It's just a descriptive definition. I personally like the looks of High Aspect kites more then Low Aspect kites but my current favorite kite has a Lower Aspect Ratio then most of the current crop of Sport Kites.

« Last Edit: December 06, 2011, 10:38 PM by mikenchico »

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